St. Patrick’s Day:
- Niceness: Tickets from the Pub for 1 free Irish Stew appetizer, 1 free pint of Guinness and 1 free shot of Irish whisky for everyone in our party (23)
- Disappointment: Didn’t get to hear The Unicorn Song or Danny Boy.
- Joke: An Irish palm pilot consisting of a string with a pen, tied around the wrist, and on the palm of the hand the written words Buy Beer.
- Aggravation: a 2-hour wait to get our food and a horrible singer in a Crocodile Dundee wannabe outfit singing such
gemssongs as Pink Floyd’s The Wall and Bryan Adams Summer of ’69 and The Romantics’ What I Like About You, and whose idea of singing something Irish was U2’s With or Without You. - Happiness: Beef Tournedoes with a Chanterelle and Red Pepper Sauce and Creamy Cheesy Garlicky Potatoes Au Gratin.
- Fun: Getting to talk to someone that I’ve been wanting to get to know better, and meeting 2 very nice new members. Plus getting to see my friend Sharon, if only for a short bit.
- Disgust: Got stopped by the cops on the way out of Malmö in a routine sweep check for drunk drivers and realized that they don’t replace that tube they make you put in your mouth and blow into for each person. The cop was unconsciously moving the plastic on it before she gave it to me and I could see that it had just been put on there and wasn’t actually sealed. Eeewwww! Ick
- Homesickness: Welcoming old college friends into town for a romp through the Chicago St. Patrick’s Day parade and proving to Jamie that they really do dye the Chicago River GREEN.
Horrible Dream I Had Last Night: Went to Italy and while sightseeing left my purse sitting somewhere in the mistaken belief it would as safe it would probably be in Sweden, and of course everything was stolen out of it and I didn’t discover it until HOURS later and had no money, no passport, no ticket, no credit cards, no mobile phone, no identification, no nothing, and spent hours trying to convince the tourist office to call and cancel all my cards and had to sleep on a bench and have nightmares about my own stupidity. Hmmm….probably the creamy cheesy garlicky potatoes au gratin working its magic.
Reasons for Joy Today: Anders is home. Spring temperatures. Blue skies. Busy magpies. Sunshine haze. Waxy shiny buds on every branch, bush and tree. Liquid blackbird song. Interesting work to do at work. Lunch with the girls. Nowhere to be tonight.
Something I Really Wish I Still Had: The brightly-colored crewel-embroidered striped and flowered guinea pig in the handpainted blue frame that my mother made me when I was a girl.